I'm 2 years late to Ryan Holiday's book"Trust Me, I am working". Never much of a PR person, I learned immediately from his nonfictional account of becoming a"media manipulator" that marketing can be everything once you've built a great item. Since I have to return the book by 12/20 into the San Diego Public LibraryI figured that this is a great time to write down my notes as a blog post.
Quotes in"Trust Me, I am working"
"We play by their rules long enough and it becomes our game" --
"Social networking is not a set of tools to allow humans to communicate with humans. It's a pair of embedding mechanisms to allow technologies to use people to communicate with one another, in an orgy of self-organizing... The Matrix had it wrong. You're not the batter power in a global, human-enslaving AI, you're somewhat more valuable. You are part of the shifting circuitry"
"it is a prime example of the feminist blogosphere's tendency to tap in the industry force of what I've begun to consider as"outrage world" -- the frequently occurring firestorms stirred up on mainstream, for-profit, woman-targeted blogs such as Jezebel and also, to a lesser degree, Slate's own XX Factor and Salon's Broadsheet. They're ignited by writers who are pushing readers to feel what the writers assert is righteously indignant anger but that is actually just petty jealousy, cleverly promoted as feminism. These firestorms are fantastic for page-view-pimping bloggy business."
"Businesses should anticipate a full scale, organized attack from critics. One which will simultaneously overrun blog comments, Facebook fan pages, along with an onslaught of sites, leading to mainstream press appeal. Begin by developing a social media crises plan and growing inner fire drills to anticipate what would happen."
"Our illusions are the house where we live; they are our information, our heroes, our adventure, our types of artwork, our really experience."
-Daniel Boorstin
Practice Advice from the Novel
Control your Wikipedia page (use any media mention from blogs or traditional media)
Study the best stories and you'll notice a pattern: the top stories all polarize poeple. If you create it endanger people's 3 Bs -- behavior, belief, or belongings -- you get a huge virus-like dispersion
Compose stuff bloggers can post right away without any work. Feed them their own lies"help them trick their subscribers"
Loaded headlines are very popular
Silence on sites is the worst.
Faking escapes with email editor (from various sources) can work if You've Got the Ideal connections
Media historian W.J. Cfambell once recognized the distinguishing mark of yellow journalism as follows:
Prominent headlines that screamed excitement about utlimately unimportant news
Luxury use of images (often of little significance )
Imposters, frauds, and faked interviews
Shade comics and a big, thick Sunday nutritional supplement
Ostentatious aid of this underdog causes
Utilization of anonymous sources
Prominent coverage of high society and events
Concepts in the book
Ongoing Narrative /Iterative Reporting -damage is already done, there's no such thing. Iterative reporting is bullshit, folks treat news headlines as"cultural truth", the damage is already done, even it's a baseless accusation.
Faking leaks with email editor (from various sources)
By way of example, each image is not the same load display = more pageviews (short term vs. long-term metrics). Usability vs. profitability -- publishers are concentrated blindly on pageviews, but in the long term, consumer trust will be important. Meanwhile, reckless bloggers are making countless sensationalizing stories that are untrue.
Snark -- mortal weapon (humor in its own dark form. Example = "Your Daily Douchebag: John Mayer Edition". Another online illustration: Hot Chicks with Douchebags
All that happens -> All that's understood by media --> All that's newsworthy ->All that is printed as news -> All that spreads. This really is the systematic limiting of the data seen by the public
My Action List / Lessons from the Book
Websites hold a lot of power
The ideal contacts in the ideal blogs in Homepage a specific sector hold lots of influence. Example: Apple announcements
Building a new site with high viral grip (but with the ideal user metrics in your mind ) can take off quickly. Sites like Watch Mojo, Ebaumsworld, Break.com, ride the tide of copying content from others, organized in a digestible way that users can quickly spread. Millions of dollars are made this way while resources are not credited. There must be a means to do both.
There is a demand for a reputable news source, or a business specific source that doesn't pander to"mass hysteria". Example: refinery29.com